BU signs new anti-sweatshop code

By Brian Fitzgerald

On April 2 Executive Vice President Joseph Mercurio
signed a new agreement aimed at ensuring that merchandise
bearing the BU insignia is not made in sweatshops. The Fair
Labor Association (FLA) agreement was designed by the
Apparel Industry Partnership, a coalition initiated by the
White House in 1996, and outlines a code of conduct for
manufacturers in the apparel industry worldwide.

A five-person committee of BU students, faculty, and
administrators will be formed by late April to discuss
issues related to the FLA agreement.

The new agreement and the committee are the latest steps
taken by BU in an effort to improve conditions in overseas
factories that manufacture licensed apparel. A campaign for
more stringent antisweatshop regulations has been mounted at
many other universities as well, including Duke and Notre
Dame.

Earlier, on February 12, BU signed a code of conduct
developed by the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) Task
Force, a document designed to prevent the abuse of workers
who manufacture university apparel. When he signed the code
developed by CLC, an Atlanta firm that acts as licensee
agent for 160 universities, Mercurio added a statement
urging the CLC Task Force to "include the principle of
disclosure to the public of licensee factory locations."

BU attorney Larry Elswit says that the FLA agreement can
be better enforced. "The new agreement provides money and a
mechanism for inspecting garment manufacturing sites," says
Elswit. "It will give the various colleges and industry
groups that are concerned about this issue an opportunity to
take not only a moral stance, but an economic stance as
well: they can tell the manufacturers, 'Comply, or we'll
reconsider where we send our business.' "

A small group of student activists at BU have been
pressing the University to adopt a code that also includes a
"living wage," six months of maternity leave and three
months of paternity leave with full pay and benefits, and
child care for children, up to age 11, of employees --
although some of these standards exceed the minimum required
in the United States. Students have also been calling for
effective ways of enforcing the regulations.

BU administrators say that the FLA agreement, drafted by
an alliance of manufacturers, human rights groups, and trade
unions, provides more information about the level of
compliance by manufacturers. It prohibits forced labor and
child labor, bans harassment and abuse, sets a maximum
60-hour workweek and a cap on mandatory overtime, and
requires employers to pay workers the nation's minimum wage
or the prevailing industry wage -- whichever is higher. The
agreement has the endorsement of the International Labor
Rights Fund.

Still, members of Students Against Sweatshops (SAS), a
group at BU, say that rather than endorsing the FLA
agreement, they are awaiting another agreement being drafted
at the University of California-Berkeley by the University
Coalition Against Sweatshops. "The FLA agreement makes the
information available to the FLA Committee, but it does not
ensure that the public will be notified," says SAS member
Chris McCallum (COM'02). SAS says that people who will
monitor the factories' compliance with the code are
contracted by manufacturers, not the FLA.

SAS says it still stands by its own code of conduct, but
hopes that the FLA agreement evolves into a document that
will further strengthen licensing guidelines.

Herb Ross, associate vice president and associate dean of
students, says that the FLA agreement is a good start. "Once
we can feel comfortable that the working conditions are
safe," he says, "we can deal with the wages and benefits as
a separate issue."